The remark from President Donald Trump came out of nowhere as he was speaking at a defense manufacturing facility under a beaming sun in Baltimore on Tuesday.

“Director of the Office of Management and Budget Russ Vought, who is fantastic, he’s done a job,” Trump said, delivering shout-outs while standing in front of a naval combat ship. “We have some big surprises coming up in another few weeks, right, Russ?”

The commander in chief was at Charm City’s Sparrows Point industrial area to announce a $6.6 billion investment in Navy submarine manufacturing, a project that could boost Maryland GOP Rep. Andy Harris’ reelection bid. His nearby 1st District could benefit from the jobs a new defense production factory will deliver.

“He’s going to be one of the very important people in the history of our country, in my opinion,” Trump added of Vought, who also was an architect of Project 2025, conservatives’ hardline playbook for his second term. “He’s got some great things happening.”

It was the latest example of how Trump’s midterms barnstorming tour has featured sometimes extreme and often vague statements.

Top congressional and other Democrats were outraged by Trump saying during a Monday rally for Nebraska Republican Sen. Pete Ricketts in Grand Island that Iran could go ahead and target two major West Coast U.S. cities.

“They can take out a city. Let them take, let it, let them take out Los Angeles. Let them take out San Diego,” Trump said of Iranian leaders. “This is a very small price to pay. And it’s going to be over very soon.”

Democrats focused on the outlandish statement from a sitting U.S. president.

“It’s sickening to hear the President of the United States dismiss American lives so callously,” House Democratic Whip Katherine M. Clark of Massachusetts wrote on X. “Every Republican candidate should be called on to denounce this.”

Democrats in California’s congressional delegation issued a joint statement calling on Trump to apologize: “Upon taking office, the President swears to uphold the Constitution and to protect us from our enemies. … As members of the California Democratic Congressional Delegation, we call on President Trump to apologize to the over 16 million Americans who live in the Los Angeles and San Diego metropolitan areas and all Americans who expect more out of our President.”

House Homeland Security Committee ranking member Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., said in a statement that the comment shows the president was “so deranged.”

“It is truly revolting how much ill will he has for the Citizens he is supposed to protect,” Thompson said. “It is clear Trump is completely panicked about the midterm elections and his Iran War disaster and wants to escalate tensions to sow election chaos. The silence from Republicans is deafening.”

Trump twice on Tuesday waved off reporters’ questions about what exactly he meant. He added what seemed to be a clean-up line Wednesday night, repeating the ominous scenario, but then adding: “We’re not going to let that happen. We protect our cities.”

‘Not-so-nice way’

Another potentially ominous statement came during the Baltimore event.

Iran was “the bully of the Middle East and not so much the bully anymore, but we have to finish up. And it’s only a question of which way. Do we want to do it the nice way or the not-so-nice way?” Trump said. “And pretty soon you’ll find out.”

Trump has floated “annihilating” the Islamic Republic as a way to end the conflict. The White House on Thursday responded to a query about whether the president’s threats are narrowly aimed at Iranian leaders or also the country’s population of 89.2 million by referring a reporter back to the same presidential comments.

At every stop, Trump receives usually tepid applause from crowds of loyalists when he contends that prices — from the cost of a gallon of gasoline to groceries to most everyday and leisure items — are swiftly falling.

At a rally Wednesday in San Antonio for Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s Senate bid, Trump said: “You watch those oil prices come down like a rock and watch everything — everything else is coming down. Oil is coming down.”

The independent fact-checking organization PolitiFact calls Trump’s prices claim “mostly false.”

“Through August, overall, prices increased by about 4.7 percent since Trump began his second term, and groceries have risen by about 3.4%. By mid-September, gasoline was up 41% from January 2025, when Trump began his second term, a spike driven by the Iran war. Fuel oil and natural gas have risen as well. Electricity was up by more than 8%,” PolitiFact wrote in a recent analysis. “Coffee, ground beef and chicken breast were also up during this period. Car prices, eggs, bacon and bread prices were down.”

‘Daydreaming’

Trump also has used campaign stops to claim he will send out $5,000 payments to millions of Americans if Republicans retain their House and Senate majorities.

But so far the president and his staff have brushed off questions about how to get such an expensive package through Congress, nor explained how his pledge to ensure each dollar is spent at home would be enforced.

“Congress would have to approve. And even if Republicans controlled the 120th Congress, the only way would be to pass legislation, I assume through reconciliation,” G. William Hoagland, a former senior GOP Senate leadership aide now with the Bipartisan Policy Center, said in a Wednesday email. “But adding another $2-plus trillion to the deficit, given growing concerns over the national debt, I would chalk up as ‘daydreaming’ and out of touch with reality.”

Going long

Trump has delivered his three-longest speeches of his second term this year.

Trump debuted his $5,000 pledge on Sept. 9 with primetime remarks at a GOP convention in Dallas, when he spoke for 1 hour, 44 minutes and 49 seconds. That was his second-longest speech of the year, surpassed only by his State of the Union address on Feb. 24, which ran for 1 hour, 47 minutes, 49 seconds.

Meanwhile, Trump’s San Antonio rally lasted 1 hour, 44 minutes and 13 seconds, the third longest of his second term, according to Roll Call’s Factba.se.

And there are more rallies planned before Election Day.

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